Smurfit Kappa Group Plc collects, manufactures and sells recycled cardboard. The company is headquartered in Ireland and operates throughout Europe and the Americas. Smurfit Kappa is the largest producer of recycled cardboard products in Europe with clients in food, beverages, household consumables and industrial markets.
Objective:
To convince the company to help regenerate biodiversity as an opportunity for the business rather than focus primarily on limiting negative impacts as part of compliance.
Background:
As a manufacturer and wholesaler of recycled cardboard, we note Smurfit Kappa’s high-level of awareness of biodiversity through its forest certification work. However, in order to bolster its sustainability leadership claims, our objective is for the company to seize the associated innovation opportunity rather than focus only on the compliance aspect.
In late 2021, we briefly discussed this with the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer and they acknowledged the opportunity, mentioning their partnership with WWF for Colombian forest management1. We requested more detail on progress but at the time, focus shifted away from the topic.
Actions:
After a previous unsuccessful attempt to initiate a collaboration, we took the opportunity to support a Biodiversity Campaign arranged through our involvement in Shareholders for Change2 network.
WHEB has since contributed to the letter sent to Smurfit Kappa as part of this campaign.
Outcomes:
M3 - Company develops or commits to developing an appropriate policy or strategy to manage the issue
The company responded, highlighting ongoing biodiversity management efforts, including double materiality assessments and related KPIs tied to compensation and funding costs. Importantly, the company has a focus not just on how to limit negative impacts on biodiversity from their operations, but as importantly, on what the company can do to regenerate biodiversity and whether efforts to date have been successful. Latest updates are available in the company’s 2022 Sustainability report3.
1 https://www.smurfitkappa.com/newsroom/2020/smurfit-kappa-announces-new-partnership-with-wwf
2 Shareholders for Change is a group of European institutional investors involved in active engagement on sustainability issues.
3 See pages 54-55 of https://www.smurfitkappa.com/-/m/files/publications---global/sustainability-reports/smurfit_kappa_sustainable_development_report_2022.pdf?rev=e2161db1df74451ca8dfc031214638d4